CARROLLTON — When Civic Memorial girls coach Jonathan Denney called out his kids following a six-point loss to Washington (Mo.) on Jan. 16, calling his kids soft, it was more a way of motivating the Eagles and not have them get complacent.

The Eagles haven’t lost since, winning handily 58-24 over Granite City in a quarterfinal at the 43rd annual Carrollton Lady Hawk Invitational on Tuesday at Carrollton High School, but winning three straight since, but it’s still not quite where the Eagles’ coach would like thing to be.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I think it’s about the same,” Denney said. “I think every game we’ve played since then has been pretty similar. I think our hustle’s a little better, our effort’s a little bit better. But we’re just not making very good decisions.

“I’m a little disappointed how they’ve responded since I called them soft. I don’t think we’re soft by any means. I just think we play that way. It’s got to change. We’re getting away with it right now. If we don’t fix a few things, it’s going to be disappointment down the road. It’s time for them to take some accountability. I’m tired of saying the same things every night. Sooner or later, they’ve got to start putting it on themselves, putting it on each other.”

CM (20-2), which will face Calhoun in one semifinal on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., got off to a bit of an inauspicious start, falling behind the Warriors (6-10) 10-6 before running off a huge 17-4 run the rest of the first half before the Eagles finally started to connect from the perimeter.

Senior Allie Troeckler led the Eagles with 21 points but had to sit much of the first half with three fouls, picking up her third just 19 seconds into the second quarter and forced CM to rely on others to pick up the slack without their floor leader.

“Early in the season, she’s had some issues getting into foul troubles and just not being very smart,” Denney said of Troeckler. “She’s really made some poor decisions and some stupid fouls and when she does that, she’s cutting into her time. She’s only got so many games left in high school and I feel like she’s cheating herself out of minutes just by not being very smart on the floor.”

Junior Kaylee Eaton, after misfiring on her first three from 3-point range, finally got hot and made six of CM’s seven 3-pointers to finish with 18 points.

“In the first quarter, they weren’t going in and it was pretty depressing to me,” Eaton said. “Second half, came out, started hitting them.”

CM is in the home stretch of its season and gearing its game up to a peak level with the regional are right around the corner.

“I still feel like we haven’t reached our actual potential,” Eaton said. “We were playing better at the beginning of the season and we’re just trying to find our way back. Hopefully, it will come.”